I don't think it was homicide....but it was a pretty STUPID move by the mother! I always get so nervous if little kids are anywhere NEAR an area that they could fall into, especially at a zoo! I think she should be punished some way just for the stupid thing she did...

Granny says, "Raisin' kids around viscious dogs just don't make sense...Georgia toddler mauled to death by family's pack of dogs28 Mar.`13 - A toddler was mauled to death after her family didn't notice she had gotten out of the house, and seven of their nine dogs attacked her in the backyard, Georgia authorities said.

Monica Renee Laminack, just 21 months old, crawled through the doggie door of her family's Ellabell, Ga., home on Wednesday evening and managed to slip out into the backyard, Debra Odom, Bryan County sheriff's office administrative secretary, said. That's when the family's pet dogs  all pit bulls or pit bull mixes, according to Odom  seized on her. "They started attacking the child, mauled her, drug her all over the yard, took her clothes off, scattered her clothes," Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith said in a news conference Thursday.

Emergency personnel arrived on the scene to find the girl covered in bite marks and were unable to revive her, reported WTOC.com in Georgia. When we got here and spoke to EMS, they told us that when they got here, she was already cold. There was nothing they could do, Bryan County Deputy Sheriff James Beatty told The Savannah Morning News. Five people were home at around 6 p.m. when the mauling happened, according to WTOC.com, including Monica's 12-year-old brother, who was assigned to watch her, and their grandmother. The grandmother, who was not identified, reportedly woke up to hear the dogs barking; she looked out her window and yelled "They are killing Monica!", reported WTOC.com.

Bryan County Animal Control euthanized all seven of the dogs involved. An Irish settler and beagle that the family owned were spared, Odum said, adding authorities had never been responded to calls at the home before this. An autopsy was being conducted on Thursday. No charges have been filed yet. "It's still under investigation right now," Odum said. It's unclear why the dogs became aggressive with the toddler, who would have turned 2 years old in June. She habitually played with dogs, all of them. But they drug her all over the yard. Something turned them on her. We dont know what, Smith said, reported The Savannah Morning News.

Sheriff: Adults home when dogs killed Ga. toddlerMar 28,`13 -- A toddler who slipped outside through a doggie door was mauled to death by her family's seven dogs in the backyard while the attack went unnoticed by the child's mother and other relatives inside their home, a southeast Georgia sheriff said Thursday.

Bryan County Sheriff Clyde Smith said the child's grandmother told investigators she was lying in bed when she heard the pit bulls and pit bull mixes barking, and she looked outside her window to see them dragging the girl. Smith said she began yelling, "They're killing Monica!" It was too late. Monica Renee Laminack, who would have turned 2 on June 1, was dead by the time an ambulance arrived Wednesday evening. Animal control officers used drugs to euthanize the dogs at the home on a rural road in tiny Ellabell, about 30 miles west of Savannah. Deputies found the girl's shoes, diaper and shredded clothing scattered across the fenced-in yard, Smith said. "They had dragged the child all over the yard. ... They tore her clothes all up," Smith said.

The toddler lived in a modest, two-story house tucked away from the main road. The sheriff said four generations of the same family shared the home, including the child's 18-year-old mother, grandparents and two uncles who are still young boy. The girl's grandmother, Michelle McIntyre, sat weeping on the tailgate of a pickup outside the home Thursday. Summer Laminack, the child's mother, sat next to her staring silently at the ground. "She's in shock," Barbara Brauda, a friend who was visiting the family, told The Associated Press before a man approached and asked a reporter to leave the property. "She hasn't been doing a whole lot of crying because she's still numb."

The sheriff said at least three adult relatives were inside the home when the dogs killed the girl outside. No criminal charges had been filed Thursday. Smith said he expects charges will be brought after he's had a chance to discuss the case with the district attorney and the girl's family has been given time to hold her funeral. "I can see child neglect at the very minimum," Smith said. Relatives told investigators the dogs that mauled the child were essentially family pets - a mother dog and six offspring from a litter she had about 16 months ago, the sheriff said. The dogs had their own doggie doors that let them come in and out of the house as they pleased. The family told deputies the dogs had never attacked a person, though one of them might have killed a cat, Smith said. He said relatives insisted the toddler would play with the dogs and even "use them as pillows while watching TV."

Smith said the dogs looked healthy and well-fed, and investigators found no signs they were being used as fighting dogs by their owners. "They said they have never been aggressive to other people," he said. "Why they got started I have no idea." Christy Lamica lives across the street from the home where the girl was killed. She said she's seen neighbors walking pit bulls on leashes along the street but isn't sure where the owners live. "Everybody on this street has dogs, and everybody pretty much keeps to themselves," said Lamica, who said she doesn't know the family of the mauled toddler. "Their dogs don't get out, and we never hear anything from them. I'm home all day, and I've never had issues."

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